Fashion brands On, Patagonia, Puma, PVH, and Salomon have introduced the world’s first clothing made entirely from textile waste.

In collaboration with the French recycling company Carbios, the consortium has produced a plain white t-shirt using a blend of mixed and colored textile waste. This process involves breaking down polyester into enzymes to create bio-recycled polyester.

The group claims that the quality of the shirt is on par with oil-based virgin polyester. 

“It may look like an ordinary t-shirt, but make no mistake, the technology behind it is extraordinary,” said Carbios CEO Emmanuel Ladent.

Currently, most recycled polyester in the industry is made from PET bottles, and only 1 per cent of fibers are recycled into new fibers. 

The group says the collective achievement is a milestone for the consortium’s goal of demonstrating a closed fiber-to-fiber loop at an industrial scale.